I've always considered retirement to be more about financial stability than age. I got a friend that retired when he was 30 and has never worked since. Unfortunately, I've not been so lucky. I'm hoping that I would be financially stable in 10 years time so that I can retire and spend more time traveling.

Shisler is correct about being more of an economical decision, I personally would have loved to retire at 35, but economically I missed that by 30 years. I think the "Ideal" age, is the very minute that you can afford to. I've seen many friends & family never live long enough to make the decison. Having listened to many others on this subject, It seems that those like myself who have worked at "Jobs" most of our lives, tend to want to retire as soon as we can, while those with "careers" seem to be happy working longer. Life is short, enjoy it.

That's the irony of everything. Life is short. But for many of us, inasmuch as we'd like to enjoy it, there are a lot of things that can easily be a block to it. Being able to finance yourself for the rest of your life after you retire is one of those. I guess that's the reason why there are a lot of people now that are even coming out of retirement and end up working again.